ICRISAT, ICAR to host global Dryland Congress in New Delhi in September
Hyderabad, July 10 (TNT): The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) will jointly organise the Dryland Congress 2026 in New Delhi from September 10 to 12 to promote global cooperation for transforming dryland agriculture through South-South collaboration.
The three-day conference, to be held at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex, will bring together policymakers, scientists, development partners, financial institutions, private sector representatives and farmer organisations from countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, according to Hyderabad-based ICRISAT.
The event coincides with the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation on September 12.
According to the Institute, drylands account for nearly 47 per cent of the world’s land surface, support over 2.3 billion people, and face challenges including recurring droughts, climate variability, soil degradation, low productivity and fragile livelihoods, necessitating greater international collaboration.
The congress aims to showcase scalable innovations and technologies for dryland agriculture, strengthen South-South technical cooperation, facilitate partnerships and investments, develop a Global South Action Framework for dryland transformation, enhance technology transfer and innovation governance, and promote gender-responsive and youth-inclusive approaches to agricultural development.
The conference will also leverage the ICRISAT Centre of Excellence (CoE) for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture (ISSCA) as a platform for sharing proven agricultural innovations across developing countries.
Six thematic areas have been identified for deliberations, including climate-resilient crop breeding, sustainable dryland farming systems, climate-resilient landscapes, seed systems, nutrition and markets, and gender- and youth-centred agricultural transformation.
The event will also commemorate 50 years of collaboration between ICAR and ICRISAT, highlighting achievements in climate-resilient crop development, seed systems and productivity enhancement for smallholder farmers, while outlining a science-driven roadmap aligned with India’s vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
ICRISAT Director General Dr Himanshu Pathak and ICAR Director General and DARE Secretary Dr M.L. Jat will serve as conference patrons, while ICRISAT Deputy Director General (Research and Innovation) Dr Stanford Blade and ICAR Deputy Director General (Crop Sciences) Dr Devendra Kumar Yadava will co-chair the event.
TNT TS
